Traditional or Exotic Pets: What Are People’s Preferences

It's common to see more exotic pets sold at the local pet store, but not many Americans want to own one. This was discovered in the course of a poll, conducted by Meetville.com (dating app to find the right person) between 3/16/14 to 9/10/14.

The poll posed the question: “Would you like to keep an exotic animal as a pet?” and yielded the following results: “Yes” - 37% and “No” - 63%.

Celebrities have long shown a predilection for exotic pets, from Michael Jackson’s chimp named Bubbles to Nicolas Cage’s octopus to Leonardo DiCaprio’s gigantic tortoise.  Director of Responsible Exotic Animal Ownership Mr. Shoemaker explains what lies behind the attraction to exotic animals. “First, it’s just a love for the animal itself, a fascination with it,” he says. “Second, it’s probably the challenge. Third, it’s the amount of dedication it takes. It’s a lot harder to take care of lions and tigers than, say, a house cat.”

The total numbers of respondents was 109,772. Participants from many countries have related to the topic. The majority were from the USA - 54%, from Canada - only 4%, whilst from Britain - 12%, from Australia - 7% and from other countries - 23%.

According to Alex Cusper, Meetville service analyst, “Over recent years there has been a growing trend away from keeping traditional pets towards exotic animals. Yet there are also a lot of campaigns which pursue the goal of reducing the number of exotic animals being kept as pets and increasing the welfare of those exotic animals.”

Meetville, a leading mobile dating service, regularly conducts research among its users. Millions of people from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia answer hundreds of questions every month. You can find the results of the poll here. If you are interested in research on a particular topic, please contact us. Any reprint of the material should be followed by clickable links to the survey.